By JAKE ELLISON

on August 8, 2017 10:53 AM

Click through to learn the many ways you can be killed by a volcano. photo-14611806.160496 - |ucfirst

Mount Rainier, a dormant volcano located near Seattle, is viewed on takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on November 28, 2013. Though all of the volcanos in the Pacific Northwest are classified as dormant, all pose a threat to large population centers in Washington State and Oregon -- but Mount Rainier's threat is by far the biggest. (Photo by George Rose/Getty Images)

Mount Rainier, a dormant volcano located near Seattle, is viewed on takeoff from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on November 28, 2013. Though all of the volcanos in the Pacific Northwest are classified as

Mount Rainier, a dormant volcano located near Seattle, is viewed...photo-13660416.160496 - |ucfirst

First and foremost has to be the huge, powerful explosions that can devastate huge tracts of forest and kill people miles from the volcanic source. For instance, when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 it chalked up "the largest debris avalanche on Earth in recorded history," a subsequent lateral blast devastated an area nearly 19 miles from west to east and more than 12.5 miles northward from the former summit, and blew 520 million tons of ash eastward across the United States, according to the USGS. The eruption killed 57 people.

Photo: The site of Mount St. Helens twenty years after the great eruption of May 18th 1980.

First and foremost has to be the huge, powerful explosions that can devastate huge tracts of forest and kill people miles from the volcanic source. For instance, when Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980 it chalked

First and foremost has to be the huge, powerful explosions that...photo-13659056.160496 - |ucfirst

Lava flows: Lava is really really hot (between 1,000 and 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit) and really really sticky (viscosity has more to do with the speed of lava flow than temperature). Sometimes it moves fast and other times more slowly based on the composition of the lava and the slope of the ground you are running for your life across, but move it does. Consequently, you could (on a really bad day) get trapped in a box canyon or against another lava flow that cut across your path as you were panic running. Then you would die a pretty rough death, unless a helicopter was nearby ready to lift you out or a sniper put you out of your misery.

Lava flows: Lava is really really hot (between 1,000 and 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit) and really really sticky (viscosity has more to do with the speed of lava flow than temperature). Sometimes it moves fast and

Lava bombs: What goes up must come down … and at about the same temperature as when it went up.

Photo: Eruption from Anak Krakatau with high density of lava bombs on May 23, 2008 in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Lava bombs: What goes up must come down … and at about the same temperature as when it went up.

Photo: Eruption from Anak Krakatau with high density of lava bombs on May 23, 2008 in Sumatra, Indonesia.

Photo: Barcroft/Barcroft Media Via Getty Images

Lava bombs: What goes up must come down … and at about the same...photo-13659060.160496 - |ucfirst

Steam blast: Again, the illustration is from the team of folks in Hawaii trying to keep tourists alive, but the concept fits any lava or hot material coming in or out of a volcano that meets water. Basically, the USGS says, when lava enters a body of water or water enters a lava tube, “the water may boil violently and cause an explosive shower of molten spatter over a wide area.” And that’s just not good.

Steam blast: Again, the illustration is from the team of folks in Hawaii trying to keep tourists alive, but the concept fits any lava or hot material coming in or out of a volcano that meets water. Basically,

Steam blast: Again, the illustration is from the team of folks in...photo-13659062.160496 - |ucfirst

Pyroclastic flows: Basically, as the USGS explains, "with rock fragments ranging in size from ash to boulders that travel across the ground at speeds typically greater than 80 km per hour (50 mph), pyroclastic flows knock down, shatter, bury or carry away nearly all objects and structures in their path. The extreme temperatures of rocks and gas inside pyroclastic flows, generally between 200°C and 700°C (390-1300°F), can ignite fires and melt snow and ice."

Photo: Redoubt Volcano viewed from the northwest following the April 4, 2009 eruption. Steam rises from the summit crater, pyroclastic flow and surge deposits drape the flanks, and lahar deposits cover the Drift River Valley.

Pyroclastic flows: Basically, as the USGS explains, "with rock fragments ranging in size from ash to boulders that travel across the ground at speeds typically greater than 80 km per hour (50 mph), pyroclastic

Photo: Having just unearthed more bodies from layers of volcanic ash and pumice, an archaeologist's assistant pauses for a cigarette, kneeling beside a victim of the AD79 eruption of Mount Versuvius over the ancient Roman town of Pompeii. Buried beneath huge amounts of toxic material this person was suffocated and crushed from falling debris. Preserved in a shell of volcanic material it is to be removed from this site on top of a villa roof where, it is calculated, this citizen was one of the last to die, having climbed 4 metres above ground level to await its fate.

Not to mention that airborne ash clouds have caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to aircraft and nearly brought down passenger jets in flight. Between 1953 and 2010, worldwide, there were at least 79 aircraft-volcanic ash encounters that resulted in damage to the aircraft [2]. Nine of these encounters resulted in engine shutdown during flight, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Flights over or near Alaskan volcanoes carry more than 50,000 passengers and millions of dollars of cargo each day to and from Asia, North America, and Europe.

Photo: Mount St. Helen's ash cloud reaches high into the sky on March 28, 1980. less

Not to mention that airborne ash clouds have caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to aircraft and nearly brought down passenger jets in flight. Between 1953 and 2010, worldwide, there were at least ... more

Photo: P-I File

Not to mention that airborne ash clouds have caused hundreds of...photo-801421.160496 - |ucfirst

Noxious gas emissions on the ground have given rise to widespread lung ailments and killed people outright. “In historic time,” reports the Oregon State University’s Volcano World site, “deaths have been caused by sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide, and carbonic acid and hydrogen sulfide.” For instance, the site reports, in 1986, "1,700 people were killed when a large amount of carbon dioxide was released from Lake Nyos. At least 300 people were hospitalized."

USGS photo caption: Carbon dioxide gas can collect in low-lying volcanic areas, posing a lethal risk to humans and animals. A burning torch lowered into a CO2 pocket (top) causes the flame to go out (bottom).

Noxious gas emissions on the ground have given rise to widespread...photo-13659055.160496 - |ucfirst

A vog (volcanic air pollution) affects broad areas downwind of erupting vents, explains the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Exposure to a dog “a hazy mixture of SO2 gas and aerosols, which are primarily composed of sulfuric acid droplets and other sulfate (SO4) compounds” can be harmful to your health.

Photo: The rim of Hawaii's Kīlauea Volcano’s summit caldera, normally clear on trade-wind days (left), became nearly obscured by vog (right) on some non-trade wind days beginning in 2008, when sulfur dioxide emissions from the volcano’s summit increased to unusually high levels.

Some quakes caused by volcanic action can be life-threatening ... “Volcanically triggered earthquakes have the potential to cause cracks, ground deformation, and damage to manmade structures,” reports the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network. “They typically are much smaller than earthquakes caused by non-volcanic sources. The largest felt volcanic earthquake in the Cascades was a magnitude 5.5 in 1981, under Mount St. Helens.”

Photo: Mount Etna, Europe's biggest and most active volcano, came to life again on October 30th, 2002, with a river of lava coming out of its mouth and a series of quakes damaging buildings on its slopes in Santa Venerina, Italy.

Some quakes caused by volcanic action can be life-threatening ... “Volcanically triggered earthquakes have the potential to cause cracks, ground deformation, and damage to manmade structures,” reports the

The most likely way volcanic activity on Mount Rainier, and other volcanoes, is likely to challenge human life very directly are the lahars, or debris and mud flows cause by rapid melting of snow and ice or the dislodging of material from the side of a volcano during activity.

The most likely way volcanic activity on Mount Rainier, and other volcanoes, is likely to challenge human life very directly are the lahars, or debris and mud flows cause by rapid melting of snow and ice or the

The most likely way volcanic activity on Mount Rainier, and other...photo-13659068.160496 - |ucfirst

You could be hit by massive debris raining down after being blasted high in the sky …

You could be hit by massive debris raining down after being blasted high in the sky …

Photo: USGS

You could be hit by massive debris raining down after being...photo-13659061.160496 - |ucfirst

You could also be killed by a tidal wave or tsunami generated by a coastal or island volcanic eruption or landslide into or under the ocean. Here is an illustration of that effect in three screen grabs from a video published by the Australian government on its Geoscience Australia website.

You could also be killed by a tidal wave or tsunami generated by a coastal or island volcanic eruption or landslide into or under the ocean. Here is an illustration of that effect in three screen grabs from a

18 - The Cape Verde island's volcano Fogo shows a flank collapse that resulted in a mega-tsunami 73,000 years ago, according to recent research into how some giant boulders got far inland on an nearby island in the archipelago country off the coast of Senegal. The tsunami reached nearly 600 feet in height when it crash landed on a nearby island. The Journal Nature reported in 2015:

"The flanks of some oceanic volcanoes periodically collapse. Huge amounts of rock slide down and displace the water below, triggering tsunamis. A volcanic collapse in Hawaii 100,000 years ago, for example, generated a mega-tsunami2 that inundated land at elevations higher than 300 metres. The mechanisms behind these massive landslides are not yet well understood."

18 - The Cape Verde island's volcano Fogo shows a flank collapse that resulted in a mega-tsunami 73,000 years ago, according to recent research into how some giant boulders got far inland on an nearby island in